Framed: A Woman Under the Influence

Earlier this year, cinematographer Caleb Deschanel was awarded with the American Society of Cinematographers' Lifetime Achievement Award. While he received widespread acclaim for 'The Black Stallion' and 'Being There' early on in his filmography, it was the work he did with independent cinema legend John Cassavetes that launched his career. Deschanel and the director teamed up for 'A Woman Under the Influence' -- the harrowing story of a working-class family, starring Peter Falk and Cassevetes' wife and muse, Gena Rowlands.

"I'll be whatever you want me to be," Mabel Longhetti tells her husband, Nick. He's a blue-collar worker who shouts before talking and slaps before caressing. Mabel's prone to some odd behavior -- it's like another part of her that tends to crawl out of hiding when Nick isn't around. She searches for affection at a bar with strange men, and is totally unprepared for what happens after they share a drink and a kiss. Casual meals at the family's impossibly long dining table (that often feels empty even when it's completely full of people) turn into awkward and inappropriate arenas for dancing and singing and flirting. Long pauses and longer eye contact make everyone around her uneasy, particularly her husband.